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2/18/14

I'm not sure how I missed this big news coming out of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, but it is something that has made me very happy, and very proud to have played a small part over a decade ago. Peter Martin pointed out on his blog that the Oklahoma Supreme Court, as of January 1, 2014, has become the official publisher of the state's appellate court decisions and will distribute those decisions through The Oklahoma State Courts Network (http://www.oscn.net). All other publishers, including West Publishing, will be unofficial publishers. This is a big deal, considering that West had been the official publisher for sixty years. Here is a blurb from the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision, 2013 OK 109:

(1) Effective January 1, 2014 the Oklahoma Supreme Court will become the official publisher of decisions of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals. The Oklahoma State Courts Network at www.oscn.net shall be the repository of official versions of the published decisions of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals. Such decisions will become official upon the placement of the respective court's official seal at the beginning of the published decision.

(2) The Oklahoma Bar Journal, West Publishing Company, and other publishers will continue to be unofficial publishers of decisions of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals.

I'll ask around to see if I can find out more information behind the decision and write when I know something more. Again, Peter Martin's post goes into some further detail on what it actually means for a state to publish its own decisions, use a vendor-neutral citation system, and keep those decisions accurate and available.

Thanks to @caminick and those at Justia for pointing this out to me. It is really nice seeing the work started in 1997 by Justice Kauger and my fellow OU Law School classmate, Kevin King, come to fruition. I had the pleasure of managing the Court's public website from 1999-2002.